Tag: Culture

I was a little worried when I saw the piano wheeled out, followed by the unassuming balding guy with the slightly disorderly remaining hair (as an unassuming balding guy with slightly disorderly remaining hair myself, I can say that).  And the Yiddish theater music from the 1920′s… But Yiddish rapper Josh Dolgin (aka "socalled") blew […]

I enjoy cooking, but I like simple things.  I spend as much time as possible with my BBQ (including in 3 feet of snow in the winter) and generally consider sauces as suspicious attempts to camouflage something unpleasant.  Needless to say, when I hear that a chef is going to speak, I prepare to tune […]

Richard Preston was one of the ideaCity "Calamity" presenters.  Author of The Hot Zone, Preston’s main area of interest has been emerging infectious diseases -he put up a slideshow of Hemorrhagic Smallpox victims that resulted in my decision to skip lunch today.  I won’t link to this nasty bit of business (you can Google it […]

The first day of the ideaCity conference in Toronto has wrapped up.  Well not entirely -the first night’s party is just getting underway, but I was up at 4:30am today to get here, so I passed on the fun to put together some posts before I fall asleep.  It’s a glamorous life…  I’ll be putting […]

Billed as "50 Great Speakers, 3 Great Parties and a Ton of Inspiration," ideaCity , brainchild of Founder and Host Moses Znaimer, has been Canada’s answer to the TED Conference since 2000.  I’ve been fortunate enough to attend in the past and can attest to the fascinating nature of the presentations, which feature a mix […]

Star Trek: the Original Series "Mirror Mirror" All of the classic episodes of the classic series all have their various claims-to-fame.  This one can probably make the claim of the most referred to episode in the series.  All of the goatee-ed evil twin references along should…  Hey, wait a minute…  Our own editor, Ken Denmead, […]

Star Trek: the Original Series "City on the Edge of Forever" It was only a matter of time before we got to this episode wasn’t it?  Star Trek’s strongest advocates, mildest fans, and worst detractors — who have actually watched the series — agree almost unanimously that this is the best episode of the entire […]

Star Trek: the Original Series "A Taste of Armageddon" Stuffy Federation Ambassador: Hey, Kirk, I got a mission for ya.  There’s this planet, Eminiar-7, we sent a starship just like yours to this planet years ago and we never heard from them again.  Oh well.  So we want you to go to this planet and […]

Well, sort of…  The vocal genius that was Mel Blanc passed away from cardio-vascular disease in 1989, but he was born 100 years ago today.  Since the United States Congress seems a little reluctant to pass my proposal to double the number of our national holidays, including Mel’s birthday, I thought it would be a […]

We’ve been speaking with some great people about a handful of funny, intriguing, and insightful talks about parenting and consumerism that need to be converted and optimized for the web. Lectures are currently in DAT format and have accompanying PowerPoints …

The portion of Harry Potter fandom affectionately referred to as WRock – Wizard Rock to the uninitiated – is known for two things. The first is a joyous and unabashed celebration of the Potter mythos through music. The second is an equally fervent dedication to combating the social ills of the day. While the most […]

Star Trek: the Original Series "Amok Time" An indispensable Spock episode.  This is also (I think) a rare Spock episode where someone other than Nimoy is making a significant addition to Vulcan-lore.  In this case, it is sci-fi writer Theodore Sturgeon, who adds that Vulcans have a seven-year mating cycle known as the Pon Farr.  […]

Star Trek: the Original Series "This Side of Paradise" "Dude, Spock, you’re making out with Charles Bronson’s wife." The Enterprise is called upon to collect the radioactivelly-charred remains of the colony of Omicron Ceti III.  Apparently, neither their realty agent, nor their neighbors, the Soongs, mentioned the fact that the planet was regularly bathed in […]

Ollie Johnston, the last of the "Nine Old Men" of classic Disney Animators, passed away on Wednesday.  Ollie started working with Disney doing in-between work on their animated shorts in 1935, and progressed along with the other eight into their now classic feature films.  You can either check out his credit list at imdb.com, or […]

Star Trek: the Original Series "Arena" I’m only showing my little geek-pup the best of the series, after all.  This classic episode gives us that rarest combination of high-flying science fiction adventure, combined with a primal struggle of man versus beast. So, the Enterprise heads to an outpost on the distant world of Cestus III […]

"Is that a dagger I see before me… or a pizza?" Funny story: over 12 years ago, a Canadian actor/comedian named Rick Miller is performing as "Murderer Number Two" on a production of MacBeth.  His part was miniscule and that left him with a lot of time on his hands.  So to pass the time, […]

Star Trek: the Original Series "The Doomsday Machine" This is an undisputed classic episode.  When I first saw it as a kid, the Planet Killer scared the you-know-what out of me.  The suspense in this episode can be cut with a type-1 hand-phaser. Everything about this episode was effective, from the conflict between Commodore Decker […]

Star Trek: the Original Series "Galileo Seven" Though generally not lauded as a classic episode, I thought this was a good choice for indoctrinating the Pup into the Roddenberry-verse.  Why?  It’s a classic Spock episode.  I know what you’re all thinking, "Amok Time" is the best Spock episode.  That may be true, but it’s not […]

Star Trek: the Original Series Those of you who have not been following the blog should know that recently, I have attempted to indoctrinate the Pup into that bastion of geek culture, Star Trek: the Original Series.  When last we observed my efforts, I’d made the potentially tragic mistake of exposing the Pup to an […]

Star Trek: the Original Series The final stage of the Pup’s assimilation has commenced.  I have begun exposing her to the geek-classic, the original Star Trek television series.  Soon, she will speak Klingon, perform the Vulcan nerve pinch, and cause people’s heads to explode with logical arguments.  Mwa ha ha ha ha haaa…. (Somewhat) Seriously, […]

The title "Online Museum of Black Superheroes" is a bit of a misnomer.  This is really a collection of articles and entries on black, or African-American, comic book characters.  I say that because it has entries on characters beyond the obvious ones, like Black Panther and the second Mr. Terriffic.  This is a great site […]

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" The material may not be serious, but I am.  I am a HUGE Python fan.  I actually knew the routines before I ever saw them, because my Junior High School friends kept performing them for each other and forced me to learn the parts as well.  Probably the only […]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer  – Season 2 When my little slayer was a bit older, about 10 years, I allowed her to watch Buffy Season Two with me. I kept my hand on the skip button. To my surprise I found little reason to do so, though I can understand those of you who would. […]

I received 78 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds QuizHow much of a Sci-Fi geek are you? Guess the Sci-Fi Movie Sounds hereCanon powershot

“Hellboy“ While “Hellboy” is based on the comic book by Mike Mignola, it is not your usual “comic book movie”. Although it is rated PG-13, it is not necessarily intended as “family entertainment” in the way that the X-Men and Spider-Man movies are. So, I thought I’d sit down with the pup and watch it […]